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AN   ACT 

Authorizing  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  borrow  specie 
to  be  applied  to  the  redemption  and  reduction  of  the  cur- 
rency. 

• 

1 .  The  Congress  of  the  Confederate  States  of  America  do  enact, 

That  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  be  and  he  is  hereby  authorized 
to  borrow,  from  any  banks,  or  other  corporations,  companies,  part- 
nerships or  individuals,  specie  to  an  amount  net  exceeding  thirty 
millions  of  dollars. 

2.  The  said  Secretary  shall  issue  to  each  lender  a  bond  or  bonds 
of  the  Confederate  States  for  the  repayment  of  the  amount  of  specie 
lent,  within  years  after  the  ratification  of  a  treaty  of 
peace  with  the  United  States,  which  said  bonds  shall  bear  interest 
at  the  rate  of  six  per  centum  per  annum,  payable  semi-annually 
in  specie. 

3.  The  specie  so  borrowed  shall  be  employed  by  the  said  Secre- 
tary in  purchasing  the  outstanding  treasury  notes  of  the  Confede- 
rate States,  at  such  times  and  upon  such  terms  as  shall  be  pre- 
scribed by  the  said  Secretary,  by  regulations  to  be  made  and  pub- 
lished by  him  from  time  to  time  for  that  purpose. 

4.  The  said  Secretary  shall  cause  the  treasury  notes  so  pur- 
chased to  be  cancelled,  and  shall  issue,  to'an  amount  equal  to  that 
of  the  notes  cancelled,  tithe  certificates  of  the  Confederate  States, 
such  as  are  authorized  to  be  issued  by  the  provisions  of  the  act 
approved  the  day  of  1864,  entitled  "  an 
act  to  provide  more  effectually  for  the  reduction  and  redemption  of 
the  currency." 

5.  The  tithe  certificates  so  issued  shall  be  hypothecated  by  the 
said  Secretary  as  security  for  the  redemption  of  the  specie  bonds 
to  be  issued  under  the  second  section  of  this  act;  and  a  ratable 
share  of  such  certificates  shall  be  allotted  to  each  bank  cr  other 
holder  of  the  specie  bonds  aforesaid. 

6.  The  said  Secretary  shall  have  the  option  to  pay  the  interest 
upon  such  hypothecated  certificates,  in  lieu  of  paying  the  interest 
upon  the  said  specie  bonds.  He  shall  also  have  the  option  to  pay 
the  said  bonds  and  redeem  the  said  certificates  at  any  time  before 
the  period  of  payment  mentioned  in  the  said  bonds. 

7.  Any  State  in  the  Confederacy  shall  have  the  right,  before  the 
loans  made  by  the  banks  of  such  State  under  the  provisions  of  this 
act  shall  have  become  payable,  to  assume  the  obligation  of  the 
0  mfederate  States  to  make  such  repayment ;  and  in  case  of  such 
assumption,  the  specie  bonds  issued  for  such  loans  shall  be  cancel- 
led and  returned  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  who  shall  there- 
upon transfer  to  such  State  the  certificates  hypothecated  for  the 
redemption  of  the  bonds  so  cancelled  and  returned. 

8.  This  act  shall  commence  and  be  in  force  from  and  after  tka 
passing  thereof. 

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